At last!
A politician
with guts
and soul

Carmen Lawrence: A voice in the wilderness
Harold Hark
6 December 2002

My 24/7 snarls were interrupted today by a brief message of hope.

Hoping, nay praying, that no earth-shaking political event would happen at the last minute to throw this unusually trouble-free preparation of SCATT into turmoil, I took the usual late afternoon break and turned on the radio to catch Phillip Adams. A safe move, as his show was recorded last night. But the radio was still tuned to the ABC. Virginia Trioli's Drive show was on and, as karma would have it, there was Carmen Lawrence giving her press conference.

Snarl-stopping stuff.

I've come to the conclusion that there is a major physiological difference within our species. And I don't mean male/female. This crucial difference includes both sexes. I'm sure it can be measured, and it most likely resides in the frontal lobes. It is developed in some human beings; in others it is in a larval state.

I'm talking about the ability to comprehend the existence of, and empathise with, The Other. The ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

Carmen Lawrence has it. John Howard doesn't.

Anyone who listened to the reasons she gave for resigning her position, and who immediately felt a surge of hope for this degraded nation...has it. (See: Why I walked away from Labor.) Those who place pragmatics above principles, who cannot see the forest for the trees, do not have it. (See: Triumph of gutlessness over gumption.)

This ability embraces the biggest of pictures, though even the vaguest understanding of what that picture contains or signifies may well be lagging behind. It releases a drive for knowledge, for knowing, that respects the means, the process, as the only journey worthy of human endeavour. For the end of a quest can only be a temporary respite. It is like a drug. Another end must soon be sought after, then another. From there the picture just gets smaller and smaller, with the spine in gradual collapse until there is nothing left but a snout whose sole reason for existence is the frantic search for one end after another.

Comprehension that an end only has value if the means by which it is achieved are noble is accompanied by an awareness of the similarity in diversity all humans share. People who do not feel superior to other people know that we are all in this bittersweet experience of life together. That there is ultimately no reason for us to compete when cooperation born of compassion will always get the job done faster and more economically.

Competition begets greed, suspicion, fear, hatred, war. Cooperation is the most concrete example of an evolving species slowly but surely transcending its baser instincts.

We are a species divided against itself. The current worldwide political climate has polarised this divide to disastrous extremes.

Carmen Lawrence is the first public figure in Australia to speak out against the insanity. The first to clearly state the position of those who detest the ignorance unto death of the philistines. That we do not want people in need to be treated like scum, that we will not go to war for George W. Bush's twisted desire for world domination, that we object to every shoddy, dishonourable act of this evil government.

In order to stand up for humanity, she had to resign her position of power in Labor's shadow cabinet. (Peter Beattie says this could threaten the future of the Labor Party. So be it.) She put her mouth where her heart is, where our hearts are, something no other politician, with the exception of Bob Brown, has been able or willing to do. And she did it unequivocally.

Carmen covered it all. And she did it with a quavering voice, because it's not easy being a pearl among snuffling snouts, a hero among colleagues who have forgotten their humanity, and others who are simply craven cowards.

In so doing, she made this snarling son of a bitch burst into tears.

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